López impressing Twins with first outings of spring

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Pitching coach Pete Maki has only worked with Pablo López for about a month now, but his first impressions were glowing.

“We pitching coaches like to say 'low-maintenance strike-throwers,'” Maki said with a smile, “and he seems like that so far.”

There are probably a couple of reasons Maki chose that particular label, the most obvious of which is that López, well, throws strikes. The low-maintenance part is as much a nod to López’s ability to police himself and stick to a routine as it is his cerebral approach, something that worked in his favor long before Sunday’s outing against the Tigers.

The son of two doctors, López had the opportunity to attend medical school at age 16 but turned it down to chase his Major League Baseball dream. He’s now devoting his brain power to outthinking hitters, something he came out on the winning side of for much of his three-inning affair against Detroit.

“I think [catcher Christian] Vázquez and I, we had an idea of what we wanted to accomplish and what we wanted to work on and what we wanted to start up as and finish up as,” López said following Minnesota’s 6-2 win at Hammond Stadium. “The things between were whatever the game was telling us and how we saw the batters were reacting to our stuff.

“Obviously, our main goal is always to be on the attack, be on the hunt. … You want to be on the attack, especially with the kind of defense [we have] behind me.”

Sunday marked López’s final tuneup with the Twins before he leaves to play for Team Venezuela in the upcoming World Baseball Classic. Because the team is in Pool D, which competes in Miami, hewas afforded a little extra time with the Twins before reporting for duty.

López made the most of it, retiring the first eight hitters he faced and racking up four strikeouts. He also continued to dazzle with a devastating changeup that has aided in his emergence as a front-end starter over the past three years.

The pitch has helped him post a 3.52 ERA across 63 starts with Miami during that stretch, and on Sunday, it caught Spencer Torkelson and Tyler Nevin swinging badly on back-to-back strikeouts to end the second and start the third.

López allowed hits to three of the last four Tigers he faced -- a home run, a single and a double that combined to score two runs with two outs in the third -- before coaxing Javier Báez to ground out to short and end his outing. With López’s role secure just behind No. 1 starter Sonny Gray in the rotation, there was no concern about the back end of just his second Grapefruit League outing of the year.

This, manager Rocco Baldelli has said often, is what’s expected early on in spring, and it takes nothing away from López’s seven strikeouts in five innings so far.

“I think [Sunday] was kind of the perfect preparation start for him,” Baldelli said. “The first eight hitters, he was pretty dominant out there. He was making good pitches, and they weren't seeing the ball good, and it worked out. Then he had to work a little bit, obviously, and that's fine.

“There's nothing wrong with having to go out there to Spring Training and be forced to work a little bit, pitch out of the stretch and to sweat a little bit; it's all necessary and helpful.”

López signed with the Marlins as an amateur free agent in 2012 and remained with the organization until landing with Minnesota in the Luis Arraez trade on Jan. 20.

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López is fresh off a career year with the Marlins that included personal bests in starts (32), innings pitched (180), wins (10) and strikeouts (174). Despite spending just five seasons with Miami -- and losing big chunks of time with right shoulder strains and a rotator cuff issue -- he closed his career there with 489 strikeouts, 11th best in Marlins history.

“It's awesome to have a guy of his caliber and polish and strike-throwing ability and multiple pitches for strikes. There's a lot to like,” Maki said. “He's super intelligent. He's just the full product, the whole shebang, whatever you want to call it; a well-rounded, balanced person.”